“If you do it properly, it's going to turn out nice.” That’s Louise Nigiyok’s philosophy about sewing and craftsmanship. She was born in Edmonton and raised in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories where she lived out on the land with her family until she moved into town to go to school. Her family would move between town and the land, living in different camps depending on the season. One camp would be for the spring and another for the summer and somewhere else in the winter to fish for arctic char. They would come home for Christmas holidays and go back out to their outpost camp. She loved living that way and wishes she could do so again.

When they first moved to the area, trapping seals and foxes was how they made money. Nigiyok sews wall hangings now but she started sewing small stuffed animals made from seal skins when she was little, creating miniature rabbits, seals, musk ox, and polar bears. They were stuffed with cotton or whatever else she can find to make them soft and round.

Nigiyok would sell her creations at the craft shop and she remembers being asked to make mukluks one time by the shopkeeper. Her mom said she would show her how to make them and she was astounded to have been paid $25 for her first pair in the 70s when she was just ten years old. She sewed them for a while until moving onto selling mitts and eventually onto the wall hangings she makes now from the original patterns her mom made her over four decades ago. Now, she teaches students to make wall hangings on Connected North and she loves interacting with the students.

When it comes to motivation to get started sewing, Nigiyok was out camping in the spring or summer and on a stormy day when they couldn’t go out and play, so her mom taught her how to trace and cut out little animals. She showed her how to sew the pieces together and she started to try sewing. Nigiyok was so eager to finish, the stitches were big with large holes between them. Showing off her “completed project”, her mom shook her head and sent it back. Nigiyok redid the work and learned how much patience it takes to do things properly.

“That's how she taught us, you do it properly. If you don't do it properly, you take it back apart and fix it and make it right so that it's nice enough to sell,” she recalls. What she learned was that sloppy stitches would show when a project was stuffed so her mother would always send a project back if it wasn’t up to standards if it was rushed so she could go and play in nice weather.  

If she met an aspiring seamstress, Nigiyok says she would help them, sitting with them so they could ask her for advice. She’s always sewing, since she makes two or three wall hangings a month. “If they wanted to quit, I would just tell them, ‘Make sure you come back because once you start something, you don't just leave it and not finish it,” She knows how half-finished projects can pile up and she’s always happy to teach people to make wall hangings.

At one time, Nigiyok would make parkas, but while she could cut the parka material and the material for the cover, she had a hard time cutting the fur. She worried about spoiling the expensive fox fur they would buy from the store and would have her mom cut it for her. She didn’t learn how to cut it for herself. Otherwise, she always found sewing easy and if she had a hard time with something, she would remember how her mom taught her.

Listening to her mom’s teachings has been important in the way Nigiyok approaches her craft. “If you don't listen and you try to do it your way, it's not gonna work out… I just tried to listen to what my mom taught me how to sew and it got easier and easier, and it just became natural. That's how I do it now.” She has been tempted sometimes thinking another way might be faster but it always ends in trouble when she tries a different method.

If Nigiyok could give a message to her younger self from when she first started sewing it would be, “Just take your time. If you rush, it's not going to turn out the way you want it.” She’s learned that when you don’t take your time, everything ends up needing to be taken apart. Her mom would tell her that rushed projects end up looking ugly and she won’t like them.

To maintain her mental health, Nigiyok turns to sewing whenever she’s stressed. She rarely goes out, preferring instead to stay home. She likes to keep her hands busy creating instead of scrolling on her phone, so she reaches for her sewing project. “It's so calming to just sit there and so really peaceful on the mind. You don't have to think of anything, just concentrate on your sewing,” she muses.

She’s inspired in her work by her mom and sister and remembers how her mom first taught her to trace, cut out and stitch together the pieces. For two decades, Nigiyok stopped making wall hangings but when she first started, she was sewing all the time. She remembers how as a teen, her mom did quality control of her work, urging her to redo things that didn’t look good, something that frustrated her sometimes. She would take a break to calm down for a couple days before fixing her work to her mother’s exacting standards. Now two years back into sewing again, she also makes tea cozies. Due to a fractured wrist, she can’t sew skins but she is sewing what she can with pleasure.

Doing things properly so they turn out nice, Louise Nigiyok is setting an example for young people who want to create wall hangings themselves and learn to sew. Remembering how she was taught, she’s passing those lessons on, following the patterns shared with her so many years ago. Finding peace in keeping her hands busy, she is stitching together things of beauty and moments of joy.

Thank you to Alison Tedford Seaweed for writing this article!